Court rejects 4 impeachment motions

[Anchor]

The Constitutional Court has dismissed the impeachment motion filed by the National Assembly against Choe Jae-hae, the head of the Board of Audit and Inspection, and three prosecutors.

All eight justices unanimously determined that there were no grounds for dismissal.

First, we have reporter Kang Pu-reun.

[Report]

[Moon Hyung-bae/Acting Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court: "Order, the request for trial for this case is dismissed."]

The Constitutional Court unanimously dismissed all four grounds for impeachment against Choe Jae-hae.

They found that Choe's statement that "the Board of Audit and Inspection is an agency that supports the President's administration" was not illegal, and they also determined that the audit of former Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission Chair Jeon Hyun-heui was not a targeted audit.

They concluded that there were no circumstances to consider the audit regarding the allegations of the relocation of the presidential office and residence as a deficient audit, and also did not accept the remaining grounds.

[Kim Hyung-doo/Constitutional Court Justice: "It is also difficult to conclude that the audit was aimed at pressuring the chair of the commission to resign."]

However, three of the justices noted that Choe violated the law in the process of changing the electronic document system and refusing to disclose meeting minutes, but they stated that it was not serious enough to warrant impeachment.

The impeachment motion against three prosecutors, including Lee Chang-soo, the Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, was also unanimously dismissed.

They determined that the private investigation of First Lady Kim Keon-hee at a location outside of the prosecution's office was not a preferential investigation, and they found it difficult to consider the statements related to the search warrant for Kim during briefings and the National Assembly audit as false.

[Moon Hyung-bae/Acting Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court: "It cannot be concluded that the investigation abused discretion in light of the security difficulties associated with summoning and investigating the spouse of the sitting president, and also considering similar precedents."]

However, they pointed out that there are some doubts about whether the investigation, including evidence collection to confirm the First Lady's alleged involvement in the Deutsche Motors stock manipulation, was conducted appropriately. But the Constitutional Court ultimately ruled that this also did not constitute an abuse of investigative discretion.

This is KBS News, Kang Pu-reun.